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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for a Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage.

We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. year of Calvinist, you cannot be sure of eventually making it to heaven. You see, when I trusted Christ as my Savior 52 years ago, that day, that night, that moment, I trusted Him as my Savior. I knew I had eternal life. I knew I was going to heaven that day.

And it was rested upon nothing more than what God said. And so for 52 years, nothing I’ve ever said or done has ever changed that verse in the Bible that says I was. Because my confidence is not in me or my works or my life, it is in what Christ said. He said, if I trust Him, I have ever lasting life. That was all I needed that day and that moment and that’s all I’ve ever needed since. My security is in the Word of God and not in my works.

And the man who looks at his life to try to use that as the proof has got reason to question in doubt his own salvation, if you’re honest. Because not a person in here is living to the standard of the Word of God perfectly. And you know it and so do I. You may desire it, but you can’t perform. Turn your page. I’ll never finish this today, I’ll never bet. You’ve already noticed that, haven’t you? I want you to understand this thought.

The Bible says that God so loved the world, but if it’s not love for all, there would be a flaw in the character of God. I wrote that down this morning in my office. Think about it again. If not love for all, there would be a flaw in the character of God. Does God love the whole world? individual to have left off one man would be a flaw in this character. Something’s wrong with the love of God. God so loved the world.

That’s everybody, every individual. Look at the top of the page. Jesus tries to pay and fold the payment for our life sins. This enables a righteous, just and holy God, the power to forgive each and everyone, all their sins who simply believe he did it for them. What right does any man have to cause any person in this world to believe these three things? Look at this. Number one, that God doesn’t love him or tell him that Christ did not die for him.

Or three, he could not go to heaven even if he wanted to because God did not choose him. What person would you want to tell that to? What person would you want to tell that to? Yeah, but if you’re a Calvinist and you believe that God is chosen just a handful, You’ll have to say it about all the ones you didn’t choose. It’s okay if you’re one of those that, well, I’m one of those that really believed it. So I’m the one that God chose.

And so you begin to prove that you’re one he chose because see, I go to church and I live a good life. I love my wife, my wife loves me and everything, hunky-dory. And what happens two years down the road when she divorces you? and you’re on the rocks, and your life is pathetic. Okay, now what? Where is your security now? And then you may wanna go to heaven, but you realize if you’re honest, you’re not living the way a Christian’s supposed to live.

You don’t think the way a Christian’s supposed to think. Your mind is not pure as it ought to be. Your attitude isn’t right. Look at the next thing. The following verses are often used to prove the case for the teaching of Calvinism. Ephesians 2 8 9, you ever heard of that? Oh, these are two awesome verses. For by grace are you saved through faith in that, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.

What is by grace? Salvation. What is through faith? Salvation. What is not of works? Salvation. What is not of yourself salvation? What is the gift of God? Faith, that’s what they say. That’s what the Calvinists teach. Faith is the gift. You can’t get safe unless God gives you the faith. What do you do? He gives the faith to the other person, believe in Buddha and Muhammad and Confucius. What about all the people who believe all kind of weird things?

See, every man has the ability to believe, to trust. You are responsible where you put your faith. It only means to something. Christ is the object of my faith. You can trust that too to take you to heaven, but I got news for you. It doesn’t have the ability to perform. You can trust this preacher to get you to heaven, but I got news for you. I’m not able to perform that task. Every believer in here can’t save one man.

So don’t trust us. Don’t trust the church. Don’t trust the priest. Don’t trust some father someplace. You trust only the one who can deliver. And that’s Jesus Christ. If you trust him, God said he will save you and he will give you as a free gift ever lasting life. Look down there at the little word error. God not only chose us, but He also predetermined to save us from the foundations of the world. Now that seems good when you first look at it, isn’t it?

Because you get that from a certain verse, and I’ll show you that in just a second. But notice what He says here. The truth. God chose, means predetermined, to save all those who are in Him from the foundations of the world. See, here’s Christ. He died for you. He was buried for you. He came back from the grave for you. See, He did that for you. So when you believe He did it for you, God put you in Christ as though you were spiritually in Christ, and you literally died and was buried and rose again.

So God from the foundation of the world has chosen to save all those that are in Him, in Christ, to be made pure and holy and separated, the having turned a life. But look at the verse 4, Ephesians chapter 1, right here, according as he has chosen us, and here’s those two words on your note, you ought to circle those two words in him. You see, Leah, I can leave those off because he, in him, was your choice. How he chose to save his choice.

He chose to save all of those who chose to be saved by trusting in Christ. You get it? The next verse down there says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, but we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. See, that’s what it says. See that you’ve got to go by the way. He chose to save me from the foundations of the world. But look at the whole thing.

God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through what? Through sanctification of the Spirit and underlined us last four words. And what? Belief of the truth. He chose to save all of those from the beginning of the world those that believe the truth. So you see it falls back on to you. It wasn’t an irresistible thing. I had to make a literal decision, definite decision. I will trust Jesus Christ as my Savior. I’m not going to heaven because I was overpowered by something.

No, I had to know what I’m doing. I made a deliberate decision, a choice. I knew the consequences. I knew if I don’t trust Christ I’m going to hell If I do, I go to heaven. But there’s people that don’t believe that. But they use all the right languages. It sounds so pretty. It sounds so spiritual. And they sound so holy. This is poison. You say, I don’t believe that. I don’t care. Well, I do. I mean, I want everybody to like me.

I mean, I really do want everybody to like me. Look at the next page, page three. Top of page three. God chose to save me from the beginning without any decision being made on my part. God knew who He had previously elected. He only had to die for those whom He knew would believe because He only gave the gift of faith to those He wanted. Therefore, this irresistible grace dictated that the will of God would be fulfilled. Isn’t that wonderful?

Now, look at the truth. You say, well, I don’t see much difference. Oh, there’s a difference. It’s between heaven and hell. The rest of the verse tells us how God chose to save. The Lord chose to save all those who were made pure and holy, sanctification by the Holy Spirit and our belief of the truth. God’s word tells us that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. It’s not a gift. Verse 14 says that God called us by the gospel.

He says to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Notice the word propitiation meaning payment and the words for the sins of the whole world in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 2. Look what this verse says. This is in your Bible in a good old King James. And he is the propitiation. That’s the same as saying he is the satisfaction. He is the payment that was needed for my sins. But get this. for hours only, but also for the sins of the what?

Did you know they will still try to change that and say that’s just only for the elect, the sins of the whole world. You see what they believe didn’t come from the Bible. What they teach in is not the Bible. And this is why you have a lot of preachers and a lot of churches teaching perseverance of the faith. Even in probably 50 to, I say 75% of the independent fundamental Bible-emissionary minded Baptist churches will teach perseverance of the faith.

If you don’t live like it, you’re not saved. You don’t live like it. You’ve got to live the life. And if you don’t live the life, you can’t tell me, you can trust Christ to save you and go out here and live like the devil and still go to heaven. Yes, I can tell you that. That’s what the Bible says. If you don’t don’t come to the conclusion that yes, you can trust Christ as your Savior and live like the devil and still go to heaven when you die.

You don’t get grace because that is the exact truth. That is the truth. I do not have to change my life. I don’t have to stop one sin. You say, I never heard a preacher say that. You just heard one and you listen to me. I want to live as holy and as godly as I possibly can. I am now 70 years old. I’ve been saved for 52 years. If you want to look at the evidence in a person’s life, go ahead.

I’ve never sworn a crossword in my life to this day. I’ve never had to drink a strong drink in my life. I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life. I go to church. I live according to the rules. Whatever the Christian life is, I do it. So if anybody goes to heaven, surely I will. But the only reason I’m going to heaven is because 52 years ago in the living room, I accepted Christ as my Savior. Is it possible for me to live like the devil?

Yes, it is. It will not affect my salvation one eye odor. And until you believe that, you’re not going understand it totally. You’ll be on the fringe. You’ll be on the edge, but you will not get the meat of what this truth about the gospel of grace is really about. Do I want you to serve the Lord? If you listen to me long enough, you know I do. Because I also want you to know that if you don’t serve the Lord, I want you to know that your heavenly Father who loves you so much, did so much for you and gave you the free gift of eternal life as a gift.

It’ll break his heart when you don’t walk with Him. When when you don’t talk to Him, it hurts your Father. And your heavenly Father is forced because of your decision to have to chasten you and discipline you and maybe take you home before your time. But it will not affect His love for you. It will not affect your salvation. He promised that if you trusted Him as your Savior, because of the payment Christ made, you get to go to heaven when you die.

That’s the only reason going to heaven. Yes, I do believe in serving the Lord, but not to get to heaven, nor to prove that I’m saved because I can change my mind and live wickedly. And in some people’s minds are with me there. He must never really met business 52 years, but now I don’t mean business. So it won’t matter. You don’t judge a man whether he’s saved or lost by how he lives, but by what does he trust and indigid him to heaven?

That’s the only way you can have security, eternal security. That you know you’re saved, but always saved, is because you know it was a gift and it was totally free. And that God loved you that much. Look at this next word. In Matthew chapter 23 verse 37 to 38 says, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, vile that kill of the prophets and stone of them which are sinned unto thee. How often would I have gathered thy children together even as they hand-gathered their chickens under wing and you would not.

The error says God has determined everything whatever will be will be. The future’s not ours to see. Lot of it. You’ve never heard that before. You’ve heard that tune before? Whatever will be will be. God’s programmed everything and we’re just a bunch of little zombies up here and we’re on some little strains and you just can’t see them and we’re little puppets. No, we’re not puppets. You are responsible for your actions. Grow up. Be responsible for yourself. Stop blaming people for why you do what you do.

And don’t blame God. He’s perfect. He makes no mistakes. He does nothing wrong. Look at the next statement, the word truth. The Lord blames the people of Israel for their decisions. To kill the prophets or to stone them was not the will of God. He held them responsible for their decisions. The words how often would I have shows that things could have been different. He held them accountable for their rejection. They could have made a different choice. Christ says he would not.

He did not say he could not. Verse 38 shows the result of their wrong decisions. So here you are. You may be in here and God, you might be to the other extreme. God loves you and wants you to have eternal life and go to heaven when you die. But God’s already decided for the foundation of the world that if you don’t trust him, you don’t go. But here you got, you can trust him. I did. How many in here have already trusted Christ as your Savior?

Let me see your hand. All right, put your hand down. All right, What if you’re sitting here? See, all these people that raised your hand, they just told me that they trusted Christ. They said, I didn’t say they did, they said they did. So I’m not gonna call them a liar, just they could be lying. Well, of course they could be, but then they lied. I didn’t lie. They said that they trusted Christ as their Savior. So they’re gonna go to heaven when they die.

What if you’re sitting here thinking, well, I wanna go to heaven. Well, then you’ll have to do what they did. You ain’t no better. You ain’t no better than they. They had to admit they’re a sinner. Well, I don’t think I’m that bad. Yes, you are. You’re just deceived. You are wicked. You are ungodly. You have a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked. You just haven’t seen yourself the way you really are. Compare yourself to God. He’s holy and perfect.

Don’t compare yourself with other people. God says that if you die, you’ll spend an eternity separated from Him in a place called hell. Now do you want to go to heaven or do you want to go to hell? It’s your choice. Nobody can force you. You see, when it’s irresistible grace means that God forced His will upon individuals. And I can’t buy that because it’s not taught in the Word of God. Grace must be able to be rejected because grace is what brings salvation to all men.

men and men can reject salvation so that means they can reject grace. I love what I’m teaching. I don’t know if you understand it totally where I’m coming from but I’m having a good time this morning. I didn’t feel this good when I started. I’m feeling better and better. Let’s jump over there to page 4, John 539. But John chapter 5 verse 30, 9, 40, this is what the scripture says. Jesus is speaking. He says, search the scriptures for in them.

You think you have eternal life. So is there somebody else who thinks they have eternal life? Yeah, but they don’t. There’s a lot of people who think they’re going to heaven. They ain’t going. They think they’re saved. They’re not. See, when you start looking at your work to try to prove that you’re saved, that means you’re trusting your works because that becomes your validation. I know I’m say because of my works.” Well, wait a minute. No man is saved because of his work and you’re not supposed to know you’re saved because you’re supposed to know that you’re saved because Jesus said he that believe it on me half everlasting life.

But look what he says here. Search the scriptures for them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of man. And you will not come to me that you might have life. Here’s the error. God’s grace is irresistible, and therefore all those God has chosen to say, well, I have no choice but to respond. So that’s why they call it irresistible grace. But the truth, why is God rebuking these Israelites for not coming to Him if they had irresistible grace?

Evidently they could resist God’s grace. Christ says, you will not come to me. He did not say you cannot come. Notice how they resist the will of God in the following verse. And now look at the next verse. I want you to see this. In Acts chapter seven verse 51, he says, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You ought to underline this. I got it in bold, but you do always resist the whole. I thought you couldn’t resist.

See what they say and what the Word of God says, not the same thing. So somebody says, are you a Calvinist? No, I am not. Nor am I an Armenian. I don’t believe you can lose your salvation. I believe I’m saved forever. When I trusted Christ as my Savior, I trusted Him to save me and take me to Heaven. That’s His job. Getting me to Heaven is His job, not mine. has nothing to do with me, everything to do with him.

And the reason I know that I’m gonna make it is because he promised he’d never cast me out and never lose me. If I can believe what he said, but you know how God is, you can’t never trust him. Or can I believe him? Can I trust him? So if you were to trust Christ as your savior this morning, what does God promise that he would give to you? Eternal life. Well, if it’s eternal life, How long would it last?

What if it lasts forever? And all you sins are paid. Where would you go when you die? The heaven. So can you know you’re going to heaven before you die? But if you have to trust in your perseverance, know how you live, then you can’t, you still can’t know you’re going to make it until you’re at the end. Because you got to, you got to persevere first. That’s why Calvinists have a problem. And they really don’t understand where they’re going when they die.

Because they don’t know for sure. Oh, I know I’m going to make it. Why? Because I’m going to persevere. I just know it because of the goodness of God. Yep, it still depends on you. You’re lying. You’re deceiving yourself. And who becomes the judge of whether they really are saved or not now? When they examine their own judgment. But what are they looking at? What Christ said and did? Or what their work produced? Look at the last statement in the bold at the bottom of the page.

Christ saves me, holds me, keeps me, and yes, Christ will preserve me until the end. If you have enjoyed this lesson, share it with a friend, or better yet, share it with your pastor. And since I’m your pastor, don’t give it to me. I really know it. This is for those at the Grace conference. May be my last meeting at the Grace Conference. Look up here. This hand represent you and me. The wall of represents sin. The Bible says we all have sin on us.

This represents the world. Everybody. All have sinned and come short of God’s perfection. Nobody is qualified to get to heaven. We’re all in the same boat. And God says to go to heaven, we’d have to be perfect as righteous as God, and nobody’s perfect. We’ve all sinned to come short of God’s perfection. God says, you can’t earn your way to heaven. It’s not by anything that you do. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh.

He came into the world because He loves us. He hates our sin because our sin separates us from God. So what Christ did for one person, He did for all. He took all the sin of all the world and paid for it, came back from the dead. And God from the very beginning had already been planned salvation for man. And He said that He has already determined before any man was born, before he did any good, or before he did any bad, he’s going to save all of those that will believe that Christ did it for them.

And if you’ll believe he did it for you, God has already given his word. See, when I trusted Christ as my Savior, when I was 18 years old, God had to save me. He promised. He has to keep his word. And he says that he’ll never cast me out and never I’m going to heaven because of what Christ did for me. Nothing else. Nothing else. out. So telling people the truth, good thing or bad thing. You see most preachers think they can’t hold their people if they tell them the truth.

So then let them live in fear. You’ve got to live the life. You’ve got to go to church. You’ve got to give you money because what the most preachers want. They want the members and they want the money. They don’t care anything about the soul. You’re not here to impress me and I’m not here to impress you. I’m here to teach the truth. Well, the people like it or they don’t like it. Christ did it all. He paid for all of our sins for everybody in the world and he says, preach the gospel to every creature because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever, whosoever believe it than Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

That’s pretty shall we? Every head bowed, every I close, no one looking around. If you hear this morning, maybe you’ve heard all of this, but you never understood. Maybe you’ve never really trusted Christ as your Savior. Would you trust Him in Him alone? Don’t trust in your life. Don’t look at your life as well. I know I’m saved because I go to church or I do this and I do that. That’s not the reason. That’s not the evidence that you’re saved.

A lost man can do all of those things. Would you trust Him in Him alone? Would you believe he died because he loves you? And if you’ll trust him as your Savior, he would give you eternal life. Would you believe that? I’m gonna ask in just a moment for a raise a hand. Raise in your hand doesn’t save you. I’m not gonna have you forward, not gonna embarrass you. But while I go, I ask for people to raise their hand.

If they trust the Christ as Savior, well, maybe you couldn’t honestly do that. But I wanna give you the chance. You see, it is your decision. It’s an important decision. Determines your destination. So when the quietness of this moment, just between you and the Lord, would you just say, Lord, I don’t understand at all, but I believe Christ died and paid for my sins, and right now I will trust Jesus Christ as my only hope of going to heaven and preach I like for you to pray for me.

So would you just slip you in it very quickly and put it right back down to Zeno at all? Anyone at all? So yes, that made sense to me. I wanna be certain I’m going to heaven and I’ll trust Christ as my savior right now. in one’s own. If you trust the Christ as your Savior, your God’s child, be aware of the teachings of Calvinism. It’s subtle sometimes, but it’s dead need. Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to teach a word and help us to have a greater respect for the payments you made.

You see, it was bigger than most people think. It covered more people than most people think. Your grace has been extended to more people than most people think. Because Father, you do say by grace, whosoever calls, whoever believes, we thank You for it. Blessed person here in Christ name we pray, Amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free.

1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our home page at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.